In the previous episode, Vera was having brunch with Greg Goodman when a call came through from Bruce Kitchen who wanted to inform her Marta’s house had been burglarized. Surprised to begin with, readers voted he continue by telling her only one item was found at the house; a measuring tape.

Episode 35

“A measuring tape was found at the scene.”

Measuring tape? Vera thought. What an odd item?

“When do they think the break-in happened?”

Cole’s ears perked up at the phrase “break-in,” as did Jill and Greg’s. If she were going to keep her job a secret from Greg, she was doing a terrible job of it. Vera excused herself and found a corner where she could chat on the phone with Bruce.

“Around 11:30 at night,” he said. “It just hit the news. She’s been missing a little over 12 hours.”

Vera’s mind reeled. She had left around 11:15, making her quite possibly the last person to see Marta. She retraced everything that had happened up until that point; the discussion in the kitchen, the game, and Cliff, the winner. Surely, the police would question Marta’s sister Celeste, and she’d tell them about the mysterious woman no one knew at the party. The redhead named Amy Dunne. And once someone realized Amy Dunne was a character in a Gillian Flynn book, more suspicion would arise. She was in trouble.

“This is unprecedented,” he said. “It seems like every assignment with you involves some sort of incident I couldn’t plan for.”

“They’ll see my number in her phone. They may be calling me as we speak.”

“I’m going to have to throw a new clause in the Loan Some work-book . . .” Bruce trailed off, thinking about how this all would affect his growing company.

“Bruce. Stay focused.”

“I guess you’ll just have to tell the truth,” he said, although Vera could tell this was against every fiber of his being. Bruce loved having this little underground company, and he feared that going completely public would ruin the wonderful mystique of it.

Naturally, telling the truth seemed to be the right answer. But Vera had given Marta her word. She had signed a contract. If Marta had haphazardly decided to go camping in a cave somewhere, she was going to be really pissed at Vera when she came out of the cave and discovered her new Loan Some friend had revealed the lie, humiliating her in the process. Plus, if Vera went against the confidentiality agreement, she would have to renege on her money, plus pay an additional fine. This had become a tricky situation.

“The police might not even believe the truth if I told them. Plus, I signed a confidentiality agreement. Either way, I’m breaking the law if I lie.”

Just then, Vera heard her phone beep. Someone else was trying to call.

“I gotta go.”

Vera hung up with Bruce and answered the other phone call.

“Hello?”

“Is this Amy Dunne?”

They had already found her.

“Yes.”

“We found your name and number in a phone of Marta Petrou who went missing last night, and we’d like to ask you to come down for questioning.”

*

Down at the police station, Vera was brought into an interrogation room that featured a table and two chairs, one for her and one for the questioning cop.

Sitting in one chair, Vera waited for the cop to come in. Eventually, a burly mammoth of a man took the other chair in front of her, his seat creaking a little when he sat down.

He explained that this was going to be recorded before turning on the recorder, and saying: “Name?” Vote below on what will happen next or if reading in email click Take our Poll.